Mike Pompeo rebukes Rudy Giuliani over 'hands and knees' comments about Kim Jong Un

North Korea's Korean Central News Agency/Reuters

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un shakes hands with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pyongyang, North Korea on May 9, 2018.

• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday seemed to rebuke Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and now a lawyer for President Donald Trump, over comments he made regarding the upcoming summit between the US and North Korea. 
• "Rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and this set of issues," Pompeo told reporters at the White House.
• Trump is set to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday seemed to rebuke Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City and now a lawyer for President Donald Trump, over comments he made regarding the upcoming summit between the US and North Korea. 

Pompeo said Giuliani did not have the authority to speak on behalf of the Trump administration when it came to foreign policy issues like the negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear program. 

"Rudy doesn't speak for the administration when it comes to this negotiation and this set of issues," Pompeo told reporters at the White House.

The secretary of state also said, however, he believed Giuliani had been joking when he recently said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un got "on his hands and knees and begged" Trump to hold the meeting after the president canceled it in late May. 

"Well, Kim Jong Un got back on his hands and knees and begged for it, which is exactly the position you want to put him in," Giuliani said at an investment conference in Israel earlier this week.  

Giuliani told Business Insider on Wednesday he didn't know for certain Kim had begged Trump in this regard, but said it was his "speculation."

Trump is set to meet with Kim on June 12 in Singapore. In recent weeks, it wasn't clear if the summit would actually take place amid a significant amount of back and forth between Washington and Pyongyang. But Trump on June 1 announced the summit was back on.

The president on Thursday sounded optimistic about the talks and said he'd even be willing to invite Kim to the US if all goes well.